Natan Linggod 972's page

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Anyone who plays with me knows, because I tell them straight up, sometimes your character will be faced with a situation in which they cannot fight and expect to survive.
They can run, hide, negotiate, surrender, whatever, there WILL be another way out of the situation. Just not fighting.

Mind you, players choosing to stand and fight when all sense would suggest running has lead to some amazing scenes and heroics. Sometimes the dice gods just want the players to win.

:)

Damnit. I was expecting at least one "It's just a flesh wound!" joke in this thread.

No ideas, comments or criticisms?

Anyway, I had another thought. Perhaps instead of a single arcane school, perhaps it would work better as a new way of organising magic? The way elemental mages split magic into the 7 elements (including void, wood and metal). Or the way Thassilonian mages saw 7 schools rather than 8.

I thought that perhaps each of the Humanity traits I outlined above could be the basis for a new school of magic, incorporating spells from any of the 'traditional' schools but organised by how they exemplify Humanity.

For example: Passion/Drive could have spells that evoke emotions, grant morale bonuses(or penalties). Probably mostly enchantments but a few necromancy or transmutations could be involved.

Diplomacy/Acceptance could be persuasive or manipulative spells, protective spells that absorb or negate harm, communications. So enchantments, abjurations and transmutations.

Domination/Conquering might be control spells, direct damage, summoning and binding, transporting(? can't conquer somewhere if you can't get there. bit of a reach though). So enchantment(domination), evocations, conjuring.

Versatility/Adaptation could be spells that grant multiple or variable abilities, such as Trifold Aspect, or those that allow the caster to decide the form the spell takes at casting such as Shadow evocation or Guidence. Anything that gives a 'floating bonus'. I'd say mostly transmutation with some enchantment and illusion(shadow).

Any feedback, comments etc would be greatly appreciated.

Just refluff some celestials. Or use them as is. I'm sure you should be able to find some that exemplify each Virtue.

Hey all.

Bit of background info, we are starting a game at around 6th level set in Golarion. The general game theme is going to be archeology, lost and ancient kingdoms so I thought I'd make a wizard who is fascinated with what he calls "human magic". The magic of ancient Atzlant, Thassilon etc. He's trying to unite them in a General Theory of Human based magic.

OOC I thought that it would be cool to have a wizard version of the Imperious sorcerer bloodline. The problem I'm having is deciding what kind of spells should go into this 'school'.

I thought perhaps that a school exemplifying the most common human traits/drives might work.

These being:
Passion, intensity, drive. Humans generally the most driven of the races given their relatively short lifespan. Can also be very zealous in beliefs.

Diplomatic and accepting. Humans usually create the most multi racial nations. And we screw anything..

Dominating and conquering. Humans tend to view the world as something to be tamed and conquered. A mountain range isn't a barrier, its a problem to be solved. Wild animals are driven off or domesticated. etc

Mentally versatile and adaptable. Humans change to their circumstances mentally rather than physically. Other races have actual subraces adapted to different environments while humans simply have different cultures and skills.

What do you think?

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

Isn't it natural running water? OR in any case, running water isn't the same as falling water. I've never heard of vampires melting away in the rain like a certain green witch so I don't think a shower would do much.

Maybe they're like Transformers in that they "Scanned" and acquired a "magic template" off some creature when they were first created.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Here, have a (semi) magic item.

Book of Shadows.
A spell book for witches. Often passed down from teacher to student or in successive generations of witches in a family. Usually a large tome, often stuffed with extra pages full of notes, recipes (for anything from stews to mundane alchemical cures to magic potions) and family history.

A witch can prepare her spells from this book in the same manner of a wizard with some differences.

If the spell she wishes to prepare is not already in her familiar, she requires 2 spell slots of the appropriate level.
If the spell is also only normally available from a Patrons bonus spells, she requires 3 spell slots to prepare it.

Furthermore, the witch must make checks as a wizard using a borrowed spellbook even if she already knows the spell to be prepared.

Older books often grant a bonus to Knowledge checks due to the notes and records. Treat it as a minor library.

Really old Books of Shadow are quite often magical in other ways, some even possessing intelligence.

Crafting one of these books requires a witch with the Coven Hex. I'm not sure what else though.

High dex, small size, I say go ranged. Your judgements don't require you be within melee range of anyone.

Want to be truly strange among goblin kind? Ride a dog.

Not really. I am forever-GM (insert emote face here) so I rarely get the chance to play. When I do get the chance to play I'm trying to get as much fun out of it as possible as I never know when my next chance will be

IT would annoy me to have an item important to my character destroyed. It would annoy my character even more though and he would act appropriately.

Whether that's running away in order to preserve his ancestral armour from the rust monster or run screaming blue murder at the bbeg and attempting to beat his head in with his own helmet depends on the character.

Actually , thinking about it some more having less skills to spread around might actually be a good thing.
Reading the fluff text for the various nagas, it seems that a few of the skills they were given as aberrations are just there to absorb excess skill points. Whereas as Magical Beasts, they can just put points into the skills that support their chosen role/lifestyle and not worry about where the other skills are going.

Maybe they can get a racial bonus that makes some skills class skills for them depending on their racial preference? Like, Dark Naga get Stealth, Intimidate and Diplomacy; Guardians get Knowledge, Spellcraft etc?

Well, if you think their skills are that important maybe you could give them a racial trait that grants extra skill points? Like the human racial?

1 person marked this as a favorite.

They don't seem to fit the description of aberration very well. I mean, they're basically just intelligent snakes with humanoid heads and some magic.
I think Magical Beast is a better fit just by going off what other creatures are in that category. Lammasu, Sphinx, Shedu and a few others are humanoid heads/faces on animal bodies with magic powers and they're all classified as Magical Beasts.

Is the Naga classification just a hold over from 3.5?

A Build-your-own-monster book of rules. Maybe like the Race Guide.

I too would like to add my voice to the call for expanded Words of Power rules.

I've been wanting to run a game where ALL spellcasting uses WoP but in its current incarnation it's just too limited and clunky.

Also, how about guide to better adventure building? Some generic story templates for GMs who have trouble making things up on the spot but don't have a lot of time to prepare for games?

He's not powered by belief but he is EMpowered by belief. He's a low level psychic so having billions of people all focusing their thought patterns on him at the same time just channeled a lot of psychic energy into him.

More than enough to trigger that sort-of-reincarnation thing that happened.

And the reason he doesn't always have this level of power? Most of the time people don't think about him so he never gets the psychic infusion.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

@Ashiel
I always thought basic stuff like what succubi do comes under common knowledge. DC 10 or less.
The specifics of how they do it would be a higher check, like whether they use a Charm Person spell or what have you.

Nothing to do with BEING fearless, just SHOWING no fear. The wizard could be pissing his pants, metaphorically speaking, and just have a good poker face.

Interesting.

Not sure only being able to use the benefits on Small creatures is very practical though.

My impractical build was an Oracle I played in a game. I wanted to do something more like a traditional oracle. Telling the future and manipulating fate and stuff. It was a Nordic styled game so we used the Northlands splat book.

I ended up with a Seer archtype Oracle with the Fate mystery (from the splat book).

Use ALL the Divinations! (Seriously my GM hated that bit. Having to come up with visions and what not) I think I ended up with 3 Divinations (the spell) per day or some such. Edit: not counting spells. These were from feats and revelations.

Spells chosen to manipulate probability and fate, mostly 3rd party, which did things like forced rerolls or penalized a roll retroactively. Great in concept, terrible in execution since the monsters mostly made their Will saves.

I was inspired by the idea of Hugin and Munin, Odins ravens to take the Eldritch Heritage feat (arcane bloodline) for a raven familiar, then another feat from Northlands which turned it into a raven swarm. Which was great! Until the enemy used any form of area attack. +50% damage and an oracles hitpoints? That swarm just collapsed.

Fun to play (Imagine a mass of ravens appearing, following a robed hooded figure pronouncing prophesies) but execution was terrible.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I am late to the discussion so someone may have already made this point.

Did the wizard take ranks in Bluff? If not, why is he not flinching each time someone swings at him? The situation as given seems to be more about using the correct skills effectively.

Warriors swings and hits the force sheild. Wizard rolls Bluff to show zero concern. Warrior rolls Sense Motive to catch on. And fails. Wizard rolls Intimidate to show his disdain and hint that the warrior should leave now. Warrior rolls Sense Motive and rolls high and decides that the wizard is bluffing somehow.

Or the Warrior rolls low and decides that the wizard makes a good, if silent, point and leaves.

The shelf life is as for normal food I would imagine. Since there is nothing saying otherwise. (Which , btw, makes this a very , VERY strong hex).

I would assume touch to be the range for Ward and Water Lung but I could be wrong. Something to be errata'ed I think.

Forced Reincarnation: The specific wording of the hex would overwrite the spell I would think. So they have a new body immideately.

And yes this means they will be naked nearby. Lower a level too. Technically I suppose the witch could target himself, but why would he? He'd be coming back as who knows what with a level gone.

If they're only usable once per encounter, why are some of them using up elemental Fist uses per day?

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Well an idea I've had for a while,

Replace the summon monster tables with mini eidolons. Basically, each outsider summoned is built using the eidolon rules so you can have more variety without the summon list being ridiculously huge.

Alternatively, have a few basic summoned creature templates eg Bruiser, Healer, Scout etc and just have them describe the appearances different. Thus an evil sorcerer summons a "Batwinged horror with flaming claws" (flying bruiser with fire power) while the pious cleric summons a "beatific, golden skinned being with blazing short swords" (flyng bruiser with fire power).

Am I a bad person because I read that as Gangnam Eidolon?

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I've always had a problem with cost being the deciding factor in whether healing/curing spells are available for the common folk.

How could any Good aligned deity deny basic health care to anyone who asks and still retain their alignment? Even if there aren't enough adepts/clerics to go around all any reasonably sized Good religious organisation needs to do is get one or two clerics with Create Wondrous Item and make some magical shrines/ statues/ circles that cast the needed spells when used.

Any intelligent reasonably benevolent king/queen/ruling council would pay to have these made and installed in as many places as they could afford.

The long term costs in savings due to recovered lost labour hours (from sickness) is IMMENSE!

Then there's Create Food and Water items... No starvation/famine ever!

Edit: Actually, casters aren't even really needed any more! Just have someone with enough Craft(statuary) and the Master Craftsman feat.

I personally have replaced both Craft and Profession skills with Trade (whatever).

That way I don't have to worry about whether something is a Craft or a Profession or a mix of the two.

I will add my 2 cents. I find the ring useful but meh in flavour.

On the other hand, the Survival Pouch from one of the 3.5 splatbooks was brilliant!

I had a kilt wearing dwarf carry one under his kilt. You should have seen the expressions on the other players faces when when I described him reaching under his kilt, a look of concentration on his face, and pulling out a mule complete with saddlebags...

Or when I offered them trail rations, also pulled out from under his kilt...

All the Love, Peace and persuasive talking the Oracle has makes me want to make a Hippy Oracle using this mystery.

Maxed out Diplomacy, Herbalism*ahem*, Craft(Beadwork/Tie dye). A few points in Perform (guitar) and Cooking.

Haunted curse ("The spirits,like, talk to me man...").

I can see him wandering around generally stopping violence with charm and suggestion spells as well as baked (organic) goods.

"You're harshing my vibe man.. Let's sit down and talk this out. You seem really upset. Want a cookie? I made them myself.."

I was going to do something like that for a game.

How I thought to restrict things was to make 2 new traits that had to be taken at 1st level.

One for wizards, one for sorcerers, that would allow a player to take the class. Without the trait you couldn't cast arcane spells.

Bards in this game were going to be non-casters or a type of sorcerer, I hadn't decided.

Nice.
I was working on my own conversion not a month ago and I am astonished at how similar our versions turned out. I hadn't even SEEN yours till a few days ago..

Great minds etc.. :)

Seems an odd question but I can't find anything that specifically states that members of a different race can't take an archtype from another race.

for example, could a human take the tengus Swordmaster rogue archtype?

@Natan: Understood. So, everyone creates his character with standard 4d6, with the potential resulting imbalance (in relation to the other players' characters).

And whatever you do, you have to cope with your scores until the end of the campaign, and every character you make for the remainder of the campaign is as imbalanced (+/-) as the last one.

---

Uhm no. Apparently I'm still not clear.

Maybe an example?

My players are J,B,T, and A. They each roll 4d6 drop lowest once for 8,12 17 10. I roll the remaining two 4d6 for 13 and 14. So everyone's stat array for this campaign is 8 10 12 13 14 17. Arrange to taste.

So they all have the same array so no inter pc disadvantage.

Natan Linggod 972 wrote:

I use point buy if everyone already has character ideas the want to play otherwise I have everyone roll 4d6 drop the lowest ONCE. The result is the stat array everyone uses. I usually have 5 to 6 people in my game so it fits perfectly. And if a char dies, the new char uses the same array..

So, if you happen to roll crap once, all your characters you ever get to play in your group suck? oO

Pretty much yes. Of course I tailor the adventure to the group not the other way around so no matter what your stats you will never be useless.

Unless you do something like make an aquatic based character in a desert campaign but that would be your own choice there.

I should say that if everyone agrees to, I do allow rerolls but the entire array gets rerolled if we do so.

Wait, or did you think I meant we roll once and apply to every stat? If so, no. I meant each person rolls one set of 4d6, until we have 6 sets and that is the stat array everyone uses. Means everyone has the same array which they then arrange as they like, modified for race/items/level/etc. So if someone rolls high, everyone one has the same high roll, if low the same low roll.

Edit: Or did you mean that what you roll in one game is the only roll you would ever get to use? If so, also no. Every game is a new array.

Sorry for not being clearer.

I don't usually roll random treasure.
Players get what they want (sort of) or what I think they need.

They can commission specific items if they want ( play in Eberron so magic crafting IS big business) but they won't get it right away except for non combat, day to day practical or vanity stuff. like a self heating camping pot which became the most valued item in the groups treasure (the paladin did the cooking and he rolled amazingly).

i've always preffered rolling the bones. I like the randomness and before you ask , yes I've played characters with stupidly low stats, such as an Artificer with a 6 Con. you know what? They were huge amounts of fun for everyone involved in the game.

I use point buy if everyone already has character ideas the want to play otherwise I have everyone roll 4d6 drop the lowest ONCE. The result is the stat array everyone uses. I usually have 5 to 6 people in my game so it fits perfectly. And if a char dies, the new char uses the same array.

For quick games I prefer rolling to point buy. its faster. otherwise everyone spends half the session trying to eke out the most bonuses they can.

We've got The Books of the Damned, covering Evil. How about Tomes of the Risen or something to cover Good?

I'd love to see what the planar rulers of the layers of the Seven Heavens are, what their motivations are, where their interests are, how they battle Evil etc. Or the Empyreal Lords or whoever else.

Could also provide good resources for good aligned player characters to take as patrons or contacts or what have you.
Or enemies if you play evil characters or even neutral or good characters in the "miss-communication of intent" way.

Or are these books out already and I just haven't seen them?

In any game i would happen to GM, the monk would have to A. use flurry like twf, meaning two weapons, and B. the enchantment would be on the monk himself, in the case of Magic Fang etc.

Therefore, if he wants to enchant his UAS, it would be one casting of whatever enchantment spell. This seems to be the most common sense approach, rather than having to specify "I cast GMF on my left fist, then my bum and finally my nose hairs"

Aaaaand now I want to stat a White Haired Witch/Monk who uses his elongated nose hairs to fight with...

Edited because of crappy formating.

I've been trying to find rules for this for a while.

Are there any?

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I know the martial arts style feats in UC cover most but I'm sure that Pathfinders diverse and creative fans have come up with their own.

So lets see them, fully statted out, a general idea or just a seed of an idea, let's have them all.

I'll put some up once I've cleaned them up a bit.

Look for Words of Power from Ultimate Magic.

Not quite the Chaos Mage but it's a good place to start.

First thing that happened when I saw the Catfolk was threaten to play one in a viking game a friend is running. I specifically asked to play a "catgirl", trollface.jpg

After dodging the thrown rulebooks and considering the character more seriously, the second thing that jumped to mind was Thundercats.

Some fairly creative ideas in here.

I had one char idea I was going to play in a game that never got off the ground. My eidolon looked like a fiendish butler, serving a foppish, rather physically lazy, rich boy.

Any of Lovecrafts monsters make good , otherworldly eidolons.

A party of all bards with different archtypes could pretty much do the same thing.

And a party of nothing but mages can do what you fear with summoning and enchanting magic as is. Targetting the summoner to get rid of the summons is a standard battle tactic in a world with summoning casters, even before the summoner made his appearance.

Anyway since usually the GM I'm the one that has to come up with it.

It would be nice to not have to houserule it in though.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I heard how bad 1sd ed Psi was. Never played it then though. I did play it in 2nd ed and it was a blast.

Sometimes literally. Psionic Blast ftw!

It could be game breaking but in both senses of the word. If you chose your powers well and rolled well, you were nearly unstoppable. if you rolled badly on your power checks though, you were boned. And not in a good way...

Flavour wise, yes I can see where you're coming from, still sci fi elements have always been a part of the game.
Did you ever run that module where the dungeon was a crashed space ship?

Anyway, that aside, flavour is easy enough to deal with just rename most of the powers and abilities.

I suppose I never had a problem with the flavour/style of psionics because I grew up in Malaysia. The idea of mystical powers coming from within is fairly well entrenched in asian culture and cinema.

3 people marked this as a favorite.

ITT people who haven't actually run psionics correctly.

Psionics, 3.5/Dreamscarred version that is, is no more broken than a wizard.
Back in the day, on the D&D boards there was a thread that explained and dispelled all the myths the haters came up with.
Wish I could find it, it would help a lot of people realise that psionics are nothing to be scared of.

Btw, I used to run psionics using 3.5 rules in every game I ran back then and it never, EVER broke my game.

3.0 rules were an abomination though. Ugh. I blame them for much of the ignorance and misinformation regarding psionics that came up since then.

Also, I just want to clarify, an eidolon SHOULD NOT BE BETTER THAN A PC CLASS at anything.

(Except being used as ablative armour.)

And that goes for how the eidolon is now as well. Since apparently it's better than the fighter at fighting. Or so everyone tells me.

I hear what your saying... but what I am saying is that is not what summoners are supposed to be about.

its about summon your own monster. not summon your own anything.

Im not saying it should not be possible... I am just saying that the reason it is the way it is for balance and play ability.

I don't get what you're saying here. Do you think the eidolon changes with each summons?

besides... summons DO get relatively good skills. I mean... MOST classes get only 2 or 4 base skills right? summons get 6? (ok 4 after int mod but that can be remedied) so you can make a stealthy, perceptive, device disabling, diplomatic, instrument crafting, professional dancing summon that looks like a beautiful woman with a foxes head, long sword and bow if you really wanted to.

I could. And she would be great for the first few levels aside from the fact that she's dumb as a brick unless i spend evolutions. After that I'm better off concentrating on making her a combat monster as her skill use becomes less and less effective. But I don't always want a combat monster. I don't think I should be limited to only building a combat monster irrespective of what my actual concept is.

is it that you want a summoner to have to option to make a Edilon thats BETTER at skills than a ranger or rogue, BETTER at casting than a sorc or wiz or BETTER at tanking than a tank AND have the option of tossing it into dangerous situations while you hide in the back safely?

If so why would any one play anything other than a summoner?

Again, you seem to not be getting what I'm saying.

I do NOT want an eidolon that can do everything. I want the option of making an eidolon that is good at ONE thing, ok at maybe one or two others and CRAP at everything else. And I would like the ONE thing to be more than just HULKSMASH!

sleep very angrily?

...

I think my girlfriend has that feat. It explains why I keep getting whacked in the head so often when she stays over.